It marks the end of an era in West Bengal politics. The freezing of Trinamool Congress symbol by the Election Commission is a big news by itself. But whether this would substantially also denote changes in the 'political culture' of the state remains to be seen.
The EC has ordered that neither faction can use the party’s "twin-flowers on grass" symbol or the name “All India Trinamool Congress" for Oct 6 by-polls including in high profile Nandigram.
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| Kazi Nazrul Islam |
Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said on X: "Freezing the AITC name and symbol — after a blatantly unconstitutional hijack by the BJP — is CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s late night birthday gift to Modi ji".
When the former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee founded the Trinamool Congress along with Mukul Roy in 1997-1998 after breaking away from the Congress, the hand-drawn “flowers and grass” symbol became closely associated with the party’s grassroots identity. It was also claimed that the symbol—"Jora Ghas Phul" (twin flowers emerging from blades of grass)— was personally sketched by Mamata Banerjee.
Of course, her claim of being a 'painter' and her selling for huge amount later became another chapter of controversy.
The concept of two flowers sharing a single stem was understabdably inspired by a famous line by the iconic poet Kazi Nazrul Islam:
"মোরা এক বৃন্তে দু'টি কুসুম হিন্দু-মুসলমান..."
(We are two buds on the same stem – Hindu and Muslim; one is the eye, the other is life). Kazi Nazrul is the national poet of present day's Bangladesh.
In 2019, there was another twist. Twenty-one years after separating from the Congress, Mamata Banerjee-led TMC had removed the grand old party's name from its logo.
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| Blogger : Background - Mamata's 'old party symbol' ::: Not far from Bangladesh border |
The new logo chosen was : Trinamool written in green with twin flowers and blue background.
While the Mamata-led faction has registered a “strong protest” against the ECI’s interim order, Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya described the move as “divine justice”, referring to an earlier TMC diktat in North 24 Parganas banning the sale of items featuring images of a lotus flower.
“This is divine justice. Remember once Trinamool had issued a diktat across North 24 Parganas banning the sale of items featuring images of a lotus flower.
It makes no difference to the people whether the TMC symbol remains or is gone, because there is no party called Trinamool any more; Trinamool is dead—Trinamool is finished,” Bhattacharya said.
The TMC faction led by West Bengal Leader of Opposition, Ritabrata Banerjee has proposed two names to the EC - “Democratic Trinamool Congress” and “Nationalist Trinamool Congress” as options for its new party name.
It also suggested three new symbols.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) has also submitted an alternative name and symbol to the Election Commission of India.
The symbol “flowers and grass” has been frozen for the October 6 bypolls.
The faction sent its choices at 11.36 pm on Thursday, according to sources, ahead of the deadline of 11 am on Friday.
LoP Rahul Gandhi on Friday criticised the Election Commission’s interim decision to bar rival TMC factions from using the party's name and its twin-flowers-on-grass symbol in the Bengal Assembly bypolls.
“First Shiv Sena, then NCP, and now Trinamool Congress. Every time, the same pattern—BJP and the Election Commission join forces to split a party. Then its election symbol is snatched away”, Gandhi said in a post on X.
In its interim order, the EC said, "On due consideration of the totality of information available on record... the Commission is of the opinion that there are two rival groups in the All India Trinamool Congress, one led by Ms. Mamata Banerjee and the other led by Shri Arup Roy."
"Each group is now claiming to be the party, and therefore the matter requires a substantive determination by the Commission under Para 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order 1968".
The Trinamool rival factions of Mamata and Ritabrata separately met the EC on Thursday.
The Mamata-led Trinamool delegation of MPs Derek O'Brien, Kalyan Banerjee, Sagarika Ghose and Mahua Moitra had a 100-minute meeting with all three election commissioners.
Ritabrata, ironically a former CPI-M lawmaker, was accompanied by his faction's chairman Arup Roy, former minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, and MLA Akhruzzaman.
ends
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